Maximof employed an agent to do the dirty work of the estate; he rarely came personally in contact with his people and scarcely knew the names of any of them. Kakin, the agent, was no better liked by the peasants; he was a bully, and rarely failed to improve when he could upon the severity of his master's measures towards them. A week after the events above recorded Barin and agent sat together in the estate office over the weekly consultation, when the question of the intended marriage of a serf came up for discussion, a man of the name of Ivan Patkin.
"He may marry whom he pleases in his own village," said the Count. "Who is the woman?"
"Timothy Drugof's daughter Olga, in this village," said Kakin; "Ivan of course lives at Drevno." This was a village within the boundaries of Maximof's estate, but seven miles at least from the manor-village of Toxova, in which Olga lived with her father.
"Tell the fool to marry a woman in Drevno or remain a bachelor," said the Count; "you know very well and so do the peasants that I will have no intermarrying amongst the villages."
"I will stop the proceedings then. I told the fellow of your objection, but he was impertinent—I will not tell you what he said."
"You should have given him the knout; do I pay you wages to sit and listen while my peasants use improper language towards their Barin?"
"I gave him the knout; but he is, as you may know, a sulky devil, and, instead of doing him good, the flogging caused him to abuse and threaten me to my face; I was somewhat afraid of the man; he is not one to meet alone in the forest on a dark night."
"Afraid of a serf? You forget, my friend, that by the admission you may endanger your position; for if you show yourself useless to me we must part. My authority must be absolute and you are my representative. As for this marriage," the Count ended, "I do not desire that Olga should leave this village—she is useful at the manor-house."
"I will do my best," said the agent. He did not mention that Ivan Patkin and his friends at Toxova had practically turned him out of the village with contemptuous words and threats directed not only against himself but also against the Count; nor that the peasants had interfered at the very beginning of Ivan's flogging and had rescued him by force.
"Tell the Barin to interfere with Ivan's marriage if he dares!" one of the peasants had said. "We would deprive him of no rights; we both are and remain his serfs and live upon his land; he loses nothing if one of us goes from one village to another!"